


Steampunk HQ

by seamimi



Category: ATEEZ (Band), BLACKPINK (Band), Mamamoo, NCT (Band), Red Velvet (K-pop Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Bruising, Burning, Cyberpunk, Gen, Magic, Steampunk, Weapons, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:28:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 12,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26054971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seamimi/pseuds/seamimi
Summary: A girl discovers a steampunk factory managed by seven men.  When a dangerous group of troops target the town, she only has a couple of months to stop those troops and reveal about the factory's secret.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. A Story was Told

**Author's Note:**

> before you read, I also made a fanmade trailer here: https://youtu.be/4O6RVPlwbM8

Time is just a fickle little thing. That's what most people believe. During 1892, an abandoned factory was found by a man named Nicholas Kim. He was only around 18 at that time. He's had a huge experience with clockworks and machinery before. Once he had found the place, he cleaned it up and started a secret organization out of it.

During the closely mid 19's, when he got old, he passed the organization and factory on to his children which was mostly sons. It kept being passed on and on up to this day. Only a couple of people know about the organization Nicholas made especially the factory, but he's still well known, however. Of course everyone knows that he was a steampunk and said the words known by almost everyone, "My how time could feel so interesting."

But he didn't just do that. He also created what he calls, "Black Magic". He wrote an entire book about it and hid it very secretly inside the factory. How did he create it you may ask? Well, he explored the back of the factory building a bit, finding out that there were unusual mechanics. He never knew where it came from or how it ended up here. He grabbed a scepter and a cauldron. All he did was put the scepter in the cauldron and boom! There goes the sparks and air out of the cauldron! The moment he found out about this, he needed more information. He wanted to know how someone could've possibly made this. But not a single trace of its past was found.

So he went. Began studying this sort of "chemistry" and combining it with clockwork and architecture. He wrote all of his discoveries on sheets of paper. Until he remembered, that believing witchcraft or any "unrealistic" type of study is against the law of the town. So there he hid the book behind a large shelf in the factory and never told anyone.

What happened to the factory now? Today, it's now claimed by seven men. Kim Namjoon, great great grandson of Nicholas, now became the owner of the factory which was now known as Steampunk HQ. He has six other men who are his close friends that operate the HQ. The story does not end there. Once someone finds out all about this and the men's pasts, they will know how the history road about the HQ can change the way things are.


	2. Mysterious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mysterious man who turns out to be a steampunk. Pretty common for the town to have steampunk around, right? Well, he's also hiding something from everyone else. What could it be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> before you read any further:
> 
> \- all of this is just for fun  
> \- might have slow updates  
> \- hope you enjoy ✨

The town area was pretty busy and the skies were cloudy. I was walking down to a stand for bread since my roommate and I were running out. I handed my coins to the seller and exchanged it with a pouch of bread. I walked off to other places around the town to see if I needed anything else. 

Just as I was strolling to the next store, a group of guys walked past me and grabbed the pouch out of my hand. "Hey!" I yelled at them, "Give it back!"  


They were laughing at me. "Not until you tell us what's inside it!" one of them exclaimed.

"Something that does not belong to you!" I hollered and snatched the pouch out of the guy's hand and dashed off running.

"Get back here you little brat!" the other guy yelled at me and started to chase off.

I was running in boots so it was a bit hard for me to outrun them. Eventually, I found an alleyway I can hide in. I peeked out to see if the guys were nearby. They were searching around, but later on they gave up and fled.  
I crept out of the alleyway not realizing there was a dent in the sidewalk and tripped over. I bumped into someone, but he backed up and I fell on my knees. "You okay?" the man asked while giving out his hand for help.

I looked up seeing a tall mysterious man who has blonde messy hair with steampunk goggles on top of his head. He wore a white blouse and brown pants with dark brown boots. I slowly reached my hand out to hold his hand and got up. I dusted myself off and the man handed me my pouch. "Is this yours?" he asked.

"Yeah, thank you." I responded as I grabbed the pouch and nodded my head.

"What were the boys doing to you?" the man questioned.

"Oh, they grabbed the bread out of my hands," I explained, "I was able to retrieve it back and ran off but they ended up chasing me."

"And ended up bumping into me." he finished my sentence.

"Yeah. Oh, uh, what's your name?" I asked him.

"Kim Taehyung. Yours?"

"Y/N." we shook hands

We then started to have a bit of a small talk that turned out to be a long conversation about some parts of our lives. It wasn’t too detailed, however. I then asked, 

"Are you a steampunk?"

"Yes," Taehyung replied, "but that's not all I really do. I wish I could tell you here but I want it to just be the two of us. It's really secretive anyways."

"I see. Do you want to exchange addresses? You could pick me up at my house and we can talk at yours."

“Addresses?” He asked in confusion.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I don’t have my own phone yet. I mean we can exchange if you feel comfortable doing so.”

"Sure!" We exchanged addresses and agreed to meet at his house.  
I walked away thinking to myself, _what could be this secret of his? What else is he besides a steampunk?_ I just met this man and I couldn't exactly think that deep about it. I shook the ideas out of my head and strolled off.


	3. Night in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I had to stay in for the night. It was nice getting to now him. It was also nice to learn about what he was hiding.

It's almost 8 pm. The TV was on in the living room. I assume my roommate was watching there. I was upstairs writing down notes. It was getting dark outside. There was a knock at the door. I ran downstairs to open it but my roommate had beaten me to it. She opened the door and Taehyung was standing in front. "Who the heck are you?" she asked in a suspicious tone.

"That's my business," I said to her and walked down.

"You invited a stranger to our house?" she turned around to me and asked.

"He's not going inside our house. I'm going to his house."

"What's going on Y/N?"

"Irene. I'll explain this later once I get back. Although there might be a chance I'll sleep in at his place and come back here extremely late. But I promise that I'll be back."

"Fine."

I got my stuff ready and headed towards Taehyung. "Wait!" Irene held her hand out to stop me and turned to Taehyung, "What's your name young man?"

"Irene-" I got cut off.

"Kim Taehyung." he replied to her.

"Oh! You're one of the co workers for that one luxury brand right?"

"Okay nice chit chat I'll see you later Irene!" I quickly said to Irene and rushed out of the door with Taehyung.

We walked down to the sidewalk and I was amazed by what I saw. Taehyung never told me about picking me up in a vehicle. It was a carriage that's all silver and has gold accents. It was pulled by horse as well. "Are you rich?" I turned to Taehyung to ask him.

"I do live in a mansion and all but all the money belongs to my parents, however."

I nodded and we both went inside the carriage. The horseman took us off to Taehyung's place. Once we arrived, I looked out of the window and was in awe about the mansion. It almost looked like a hotel resort. "Mr. Kim," the horseman said to Taehyung, "we've arrived."

The carriage stopped at the giant front door and we got off. Taehyung held the door for me and I entered inside the mansion. I looked around the huge room in surprise. "You can explore," Taehyung said to me and I turned around to look at him, "I'll change upstairs. You can wait in my room after."

I nodded and started looking around the living area. There was a long velvety couch facing a fireplace. There was a leopard printed rug that's the length of the couch and a huge family picture above the fireplace. 

I looked at the family picture and it showed his parents. His dad has black hair slicked back and his mom's hair was short and blackish brown. When I looked at Taehyung in the picture, he had blackish brown hair with side swept bangs. I was confused by looking at the picture because how did I see him have blonde hair the first time I saw him and black hair in the photo? I'm probably just seeing things and he must've dyed his hair blonde.  
I quickly explored the other parts of the mansion after looking at the picture. Once I finished, I went upstairs to Taehyung's room. I was surprised it wasn't that big. It closely looked like a hotel room but bigger. His bed was fancier than the entire room. I looked at his bed and saw a black sweater on top of it. There was a sticky note on the sweater and it said something on it. I walked over to the sweater and picked up the sticky note. It read:

 _Just in case if you forgot to pack pajamas._  
\- Taehyung

I'm surprised that he actually let me borrow one of his sweaters. I looked at the other door in his room to see if he was still changing. I see light coming out of the door and hear faint water sprinkling on to the ground. I went to the bathroom downstairs just so that I don't have to change in his room. After I got into the large sweater, I folded my pants, top, and jacket. I went back up to Taehyung's room and as soon as I opened the door, I was shocked by what I was seeing. 

My eyes widened a bit and my mouth was slightly open. It was only Taehyung sitting at the side of the bed cross legged while reading a book. The only difference was that he had black hair now and wore a red blouse with the sleeves rolled up and black pajama bottoms. He noticed I was at the door and said, "I thought you changed into it already."

"Y-your hair!" I stuttered.

He touched the back of his hair with his hand and asked, "What about it?"

"Wasn't it blonde before?" I questioned and entered the room closing the door.

"Oh," he said, "I told you that I don't just do steampunk and that I was going to tell you something personal right?"

"Yes!" I said to him, "That's why I'm here!"

"Okay. Well, the hair color changing thing is related to what I'm about to tell you."

"Tell me then." I sat next to him.

He sighed loudly. "I was taught this teaching called," he explained, "'Black Magic'."

"What's that?" I asked him.

"It was considered this type of 'chemistry' as said by my close friend. No one knows how it happened at all. I don't think it's going to be revealed anytime soon. Anyways, my close friend found the book about it in an area of our workplace. He found out that it was written by his great great grandfather which means his great great grandfather was the first person to find out about this. However he didn't know where the materials about it came from. It just appeared at the back of the workplace. But he already combined black magic and clockwork together and created unique types of items. The reason why I wanted to talk about this privately is because learning witchcraft or any 'mythical' study is against the law of this town. We all have to remember that the town and area we live in is not like any other."

"What kinds of items were made?"

"Well, he wrote some sort of extra spells and other unusual materials for steampunk work. I used one of his spells to change the color of my hair."

"What do you do as a steampunk knowing about black magic?"

"We would usually do architecture or other items and finish it off with the black magic. That way it would look more 'finished'."

"I see."

"Are you a steampunk yourself?"

"I'm still beginning to learn it and I do find the work ethic really interesting."

"Then you might love the inside of the workplace."

"Where is it now?"

"That I'll show you tomorrow. It's already evening anyway."

I got up and said, "I could sleep on the floor."

"You sure?" Taehyung asked.

"I'll be fine!"

"Okay then. If you think it's comfortable for you."

Taehyung gave me a spare pillow and blankets. He was about to lie down and before he did, I told him, "Thanks for sharing this with me tonight even though it's just the first time we met."

He looked at me and smiled. "No problem." he said to me and fell asleep.

I proceeded to lie down on the floor while bringing the blanket towards me. I was still daydreaming about how I want to be part of his workplace and how he can teach me this "Black Magic". After a while, I fell asleep.


	4. Arriving at HQ

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The men at HQ were very interesting and they were fun to interact. I began to learn more about steampunk and also Black Magic. But I have to remember, I can't tell anyone.

I woke up from the floor and went to the downstairs bathroom to change back into my clothes from yesterday. After that, I went to the dinning area if there was already food. The first thing I saw while I walked in was Taehyung at the dining table holding a mug. "Your up a bit early." he said to me.

"You woke up first." I chuckled and walked over to the fridge.

"Didn't you wear those clothes yesterday?" he asked me as I put my hand on the handle of the fridge.

I turned to face him. "I forgot to pack spare clothes too," I explained, "I didn't know I was actually going to sleep in."

Taehyung stood up. "I'll hand you something," he said and went back up stairs.

I was eating the food that was on the table instead of finding some in the fridge. Taehyung came back inside holding a gift box with a light blue blouse on top of it. "I found these clothes in my closet." he told me, "The blouse was by me but I'm not able to fit it anymore and the inside of the box has a trench coat that was supposed to be a birthday gift for a friend. She didn't like it a lot so she gave it back to me and it was sitting in my closet collecting dust."

I walked over to Taehyung to get the clothes from him. "Thank you," I said to him and he smirked at me.

"You're welcome." he told me.

I went to the bathroom to change into the clothes. When I walked out of the bathroom, Taehyung was in a black silk blouse with white lace at the ends of the collar. He paired it with black dress pants and a belt. "You ready to go?" he asked.

"Yep." I responded and nodded.

"You look nice." he complimented.

"Why thank you!" I laughed.

Taehyung wore his leather shoes and coat while I got into my boots. We headed out the door and started walking to the HQ. I followed Taehyung's pace so that I won't lose him. "Since you don't have a phone yet, do you accept letters?" he asked me while we walked past the town.

"Yeah! I do that a lot with some of my close family members." I responded.

"Ah, I see."

We stopped at the entrance of the forest where the HQ was located. "This is going to be a rough one." Taehyung said to me while looking at the forest.

He held out his hand and my hand went towards it. We started walking into the forest carefully. He was right. It was going to be rough at first, but later on there was more room to walk through. I held on tight to Taehyung's hand throughout the entire walk. Eventually, he slowed down, stopped, and looked up. His grip loosened and let go of my hand. I went next to him to see what he was looking at. It turns out, we made it to the HQ. 

It looked like a gigantic cabin but fancier. Some parts of it were slightly worn out but it looked unnoticeable. I was in awe. My eyes widened a bit and my mouth was slightly open. Taehyung looked at me. "Now now. We haven't gone inside yet." he said to me.

I looked at him meeting eye contact. "Can we go in now?" I asked in excitement.

He laughed, "As you wish."

He walked up to the wooden door and I followed. He opened the door for me. "Ladies first!" he said while bowing down a bit.

I nodded in thanks and entered. Three steps into the HQ, I stopped to take a look around. Taehyung walked in and closed the door. He took off his coat and hung it on the hook at the door. Someone upstairs went out of one of the rooms. I assumed he's one of the guys that works with Taehyung. 

Once he stepped out, he was looking down at me. He had dark brown hair with a small curl at the front and wore a brown fedora on his head. He wore a white tucked in blouse and dark pants.

When we made eye contact, the guy shot a poker face and looked at me. His eyes then shifted towards Taehyung and his expression changed in a second. He flashed a smile of joy on his face and giggled. "Jimin!" he yelled towards the room he stepped out of, "Taehyung is back!"

The guy that was called went out of the room and looked down at Taehyung. His hair was light brown. He also flashed a smile and ran downstairs grabbing a hand of the guy that called him. Both ran over to Taehyung giving him a hug. They all were laughing and had smiles on their faces. There were four other guys walking out of the downstairs room checking out what was going on here. They walked towards Taehyung and the two other guys let go of him. Taehyung walked to one of the guys that had platinum blonde hair and is slightly taller than him. "Good to see you here again." the guy said.

"It's been a while since we've met." Taehyung said to the guy while shaking his hand.

"It seems you have brought in a visitor. Who's she?"

"Oh, I'm Y/N. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

The guy with the light brown hair went up to me and shook my hand. "My name is Park Jimin as you might've heard," he said and pulled in the guy with the fedora, "and this is Jeon Jungkook."

"It's nice to meet you Ms. Y/N." Jungkook greeted while he shook my hand.

"Nice to meet you too." I said to him while having a small smile on my face.

"And, uh, here we have the older men of the group." Taehyung said to me while gesturing his hands to the four guys.

I turned around to the four guys and started greeting and shaking hands with the guy to my right. He looked like he was the oldest among the rest. "Hello, I'm Kim Seokjin," he said with a smile.

The next guy had brown messy hair. He smiled when he greeted me. He looked like he was a shining sun. "Hello, I'm Jung Hoseok!" he greeted cheerily and shook my hand.

I laughed while sending a smile back. I moved on to the next guy whose hair was crimped and had a faded purple color. "Hi, I'm Min Yoongi." he greeted while having a slight smile on his face as we shook hands.

The last guy was with the platinum blonde hair. He looked mature and I assumed he was the main one who runs the HQ. "I'm Kim Namjoon," he said to me, "it's nice to meet you."

We both shook hands and I asked him, "So are you the one that runs this HQ?"

"Yes I am. Actually all seven of us run the HQ while I'm considered the owner of it. It was passed down by my father. My great great grandfather was the original owner of it."

I nodded at him in showing understanding. "How did you two meet?" Namjoon asked Taehyung.

"She was running away from some crooks," Taehyung explained, "and she bumped into me. We both got interested in knowing each other and ended up here."

"Is she a steampunk too?" Jungkook asked him.

"I'm actually trying to learn about it," I explained, "no one in my family knows except my mom."

"Ah I see," Seokjin exclaimed, "you brought in the right person Taehyung."

"Do you know anything about black magic?" Yoongi asked me and everyone stared at him.

"Taehyung told me about black magic," I said, "but I never saw any experiment about it."

Namjoon looked down. "Well, you see," he began, "no other steampunk knows about it besides us. My great great grandfather was the first one to know about it but never told anyone about it because of the laws. So he wrote an entire book about studying it and hid it behind a bookshelf hoping that no one would find out. I managed to find the book once I started owning the HQ and shared it to the rest of the boys. It was kept a secret from others so that it won't be caused a threat."

"Hold on," Jimin spoke, "you told Y/N what black magic was?"

Taehyung looked at Jimin and explained, "I never got into full detail about it. All I did was saying to her that it was a study," he looked at me, "you promise not to tell anyone else, right?"

"Yes." I replied.

"Okay then." Hoseok said, "Would you want to see a study from the book?"

I nodded. "Taehyung," Namjoon said, "show a demonstration first."

Everyone had their eyes on Taehyung. He tilted his head up, closed his eyes, and ran his fingers through his hair transitioning the hair color from black to electric blue. He opened his eyes and put his hands back down. I had a surprised face. Everyone else was whooping and applauding with smiles. Taehyung smirked in triumph. So that's why his hair changed into black so quickly. "Now you know how." he said to me.

"How does that work?" I asked.

"The book is here for you." Seokjin walked in with the book.

It was a brown leather with gold strips at the thick spine. I expected it to have a lot of studies in there and I was right. I walked towards Seokjin holding the book with his two hands. I got the book from him and put it on top of the counter in front of the entrance. Hoseok opened the book and went to the page where the hair spell was. "So are these considered spells as well?" I asked him while he was skimming.

"They're not really called spells a lot," he explained, "but there are some times where we called it that. Right now we call it our studies."

"Is the hair changing thing considered a spell?"

"It's like a bonus put into this book and these bonuses are considered spells most of the time since it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with clockworks or architecture. So yeah, you could call it a spell if you want."

He stopped at the page where the hair changing spell was at. The text was a bit small but still clear and readable. Hoseok put his finger on the first line and slid it down reading through the text. "Is there anything you have to do in order to pull off the spells?" I asked.

"You just have to say it in your head," Jungkook explained.

"Then it just happens like that?"

"Black magic is very complicated at first," Namjoon stated, "At the beginning of the book, it explains the warnings and directions about it. My great great grandfather knew that there was going to be dangers about it, that's not just the law."

"And he also knew the dangers about how some studies could be hard to achieve when he's combining it with clockwork or any steampunk activity." Jungkook added.

"I see," I said, "Are there any studies that I can look at?"

"Can you do at least one thing from steampunk activities?" Yoongi asked.

"I just wanted to look at them first. Not try them out yet. I'm still a beginner at steampunk culture. I only started 2 months ago but never had the chance to go full on depth about it."

Jimin pulled out a small book from his pocket. "I've written these notes down about the studies for newcomers," he explained, "there's also basics on how to do basic clockwork and architecture as well."

I walked towards Jimin to get the book. "These are only just notes about the studies and not the actual. If you're ready to go on with the studies, you know where to go." he said.

"Thanks for letting me borrow it." I said to Jimin.

He smiled at me in showing acceptance. "It might be time for Y/N to go now." Taehyung said.

"Already?" Jungkook complained, "Come on, we haven't even shown you around yet!"

"Oh! I just realized!" I exclaimed, "Please Taehyung?"

I begged to him with my fingers intertwined and holding them under my chin. Taehyung chuckled. "Fine." he said.

I smiled. "Let's go!" Jimin grabbed my wrist and dashed to the first room.

"Calm down," Namjoon said, "We've got to follow as well."

The rest of them followed me and Jimin.


	5. Late Comeback

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Learning about Taehyung's history of becoming a steampunk was interesting. I hope to meet him and the boys again. But I can't make Irene wait for me to come back any longer!

Jimin was showing me the last part of the HQ. I think I've been in here long enough. As soon as Jimin finished explaining, I told him, "Thanks for giving me a tour. I think I might get used to it now."

"No problem," Jimin said, "If you manage to come back here and need help, the older guys got it!"

Me and Taehyung walked outside of the HQ. He decided that he'll take me back home. "I'll see you guys again soon!" I waved at the boys and they all waved at me.

We were in the carriage that was taking me home. "So," I started off the conversation, "how did you become a steampunk?"

"Well," Taehyung began, "I wanted to be one because I've seen my father do clockwork before. I was inspired by it so I wanted to join him on it. Once I was in middle school, I was highly judged because of it. So I focused on something else that people won't judge me for but still have the passion for clockwork. I focused on designing clothes with an indistinctive style to it. Later on, I became a coworker for a luxury brand. I don't do work for it a lot today. Once Namjoon found out that I was a steampunk, he wanted me to join the Steampunk HQ. I accepted. We've been friends for a long time before we became steampunks. I can also create these kinds of armor just for decor and would pinch it with black magic."

"You must've been through a long journey."

"That's just a summary." we laughed.

The carriage stopped at my place. I got off and looked back at Taehyung. "Thanks for dropping me off," I said.

"Anytime," he responded.

Just as I was about to go inside, he called me, "Y/N!"

I turned back and went over to him. He gave me a purple card. I looked at the writings on it and it turns out it was his number. "Just in case your mom allows you to have a phone." he said with a grin.

I smiled in thanks and went back to my house. The carriage left. I realized that it was way past the middle of the day already. Did I stay that long? Or was it because we took a long time to go through the forest? I knocked on the door and heard footsteps inside. The door was opened by Irene. She looked at me and sighed in relief while she hugged me tight. "Thank god you are safe!" she said.

"I told you," I spoke as I went inside, "I was gonna be fine."

We were sitting on the couch and I explained to her what I did. "They didn't do anything bad to you right?" she asked.

"They didn't," I responded, "they are very polite and welcoming."

"I see. What did they tell you about steampunk?"

"One of them gave me a notebook about learning clockwork and how to start off becoming a steampunk-"

"You're a steampunk and never told me?!"

"I didn't have the guts to tell you!"

"Who else knows about this?"

"My mom."

"Just her?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"Well, I just started learning steampunk months ago but didn't really have enough time to go on it."

"I see."

Irene pulled something out of her pocket. It was a phone. "I know your mom told you that she thinks you aren't ready to have a phone yet," she said, "but now that you are a young adult, I can give you my old phone."

I took the phone from her and looked at the screen. I noticed a few scratches and the phone case was a bright red. "Thanks!" I said to Irene.

"I'll help you set it up." she said.

She turned on the phone and put in the passcode. "You need an ID picture for your profile," she said, "You could take a selfie of yourself."

I got the phone from her. "Can you be in it too?" I asked cheerfully.

She chuckled, "Sure!"

I took the selfie of both of us and she gave me my official phone number. "Now you can add other things in your profile." she said.

I finished up adding the empty spots in the profile and asked Irene, "Can I add your number in my contacts?"

"Of course!" she responded, "If you need help with anything."

She added her number to the contacts and handed back the phone. "You're all set!" Irene said.

"Thanks for the help!" I said.

"It's getting late now. You came here a bit late and your eyes look a bit tired."

"What about the dinner?"

"Skip it for now."

"Okay. Good night!" I said to Irene as I went upstairs.


	6. "Well, that was quick."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I know; your mom finally gave you a phone?"
> 
> "Actually this is my roommate's old phone."
> 
> "I see. Well that was quick."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify things the first part of the chapter is in Taehyung's perspective. After the dash, it goes back to the reader's perspective. Hope you're enjoy the AU so far! ✨

I was in the middle of writing a journal entry in my room. Everyone else was asleep. I kept my room dark and only my desk lamp on so that no one would know that I'm awake. I heard my phone vibrate on the desk. I picked it up and noticed that someone was calling me. I read the unknown number and without hesitating, I accepted it. "Um, hello?" the voice came out of the phone; I recognized the person right away, "this is Y/N-"

"I know," I said, "your mom finally gave you a phone?"

"Actually this is my roommate's old phone."

"I see. Well that was quick."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm just doing a journal entry."

"Shouldn't you be getting rest?"

"Shouldn't you?" I chuckled.

"Well yeah, but I just wanted to call you since I already got a phone."

"So you miss me already?"

"I kinda do. I know we just met like yesterday."

"That's fine. Is there any other reason why you called me?"

"I have a question regarding that spell. How were you actually able to change your hair?"

"It's complicated. I just read the spell and attempted it. Based on my understanding, some spells are not suited for everyone."

"I see."

"Now what are you doing?"

"I was just getting ready for bed until I decided to call you. I just feel like I wanted to talk to someone before sleeping."

"Why not your roommate?"

"She's already going to bed."

"Okay. Well it's nice to hear you before going to sleep."

"It's nice to hear you too. But we should probably go to bed already." I laughed

"Okay. Good night!"

"Good night." I hung up and placed the phone back on my desk.

I packed up my writing materials and went to bed. It was nice to hear her again. There may be times where we won't be able to meet so that's why I'm glad that she's got a phone. I also hope that she might keep in contact with the rest.

-

I was starting to wish that the other guys would give me their contacts now that I've gotten my own phone. I was getting even more curious about the steampunk culture. Mostly the black magic part, but I wanted to know more about the actual culture itself. Starting tonight, I'm going to read over the small notes over and over every night until I fall asleep.


	7. Painted it Black part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "They're a group of troops who are our enemy in this town. They kidnap people and paint huge marks on their homes to investigate."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: there will be mentions of killing, kidnapping, and home invasions

I dressed up into a tan blouse that was tucked in a pair of black jeans. I went downstairs to get my breakfast and saw Irene already in the kitchen. "You look dressed up," she said when she turned to me.

"I-It's just what I usually wear," I told her as I went to the dining table.

"Also I forgot to ask you. Where did that blue blouse and trench coat come from?" she asked me while serving the food.

"What do you mean?" I looked at her like I remembered nothing.

"When you came back here, you were wearing those clothes."

"Um. You see-"

"Did that Taehyung guy dead serious let you wear his clothes?!" she stood up from the table slamming her hands down, "You just met that man!"

"I can explain! He just let me, uh, borrow them!"

"Only borrow?" she sat back down, "If it's only borrowing, then okay."

"I'm sorry that I freaked you out for a second."

"It's fine. It's just that you are younger than me and I could easily get overprotective sometimes. I don't exactly know him fully yet so it might be hard for me to gain  
his trust."

I nodded and we both finally started eating. It took us a while to finish since Irene made a large breakfast for us. While eating, she spoke out, "So, tell me about Taehyung."

I looked up with my mouth full of food. I swallowed it down and said, "Didn't I tell you about him last night?"

"But it wasn't in full detail. You only told me about the steampunk factory part and the guys he worked with."

"Okay. So you're correct, he was one of the well known co workers of that one luxury brand. He doesn't do that kind of work very often now that he's accepted to be a steampunk."

"How did he get into steampunk?"

"It was by his dad."

"M'kay. The only thing you told me about Taehyung was that he has nice manners. How nice was he?"

"Well, not only did he let me borrow his clothes, he would hold the door for me."

There was a short silence in the room until Irene said, "And? That's just a summary or something?"

"I mean... yeah, sums it up I guess."

Irene nodded while she sipped her hot cocoa. We then finished our breakfast and I stood up with the empty plate to take it to the sink. I went upstairs to get my bag. Irene stood up and asked, "You going out again?"

"I got a meet up with Lisa. You know, from college?" I told her as I went downstairs to go out.

"Oh, okay. Make sure to come back safely!" she said as I walked out the door.

As I was walking I pulled out my phone and texted Taehyung:

**Y/N: Were you going to let me keep the clothes you lent me?**

I put my phone back in my bag and stopped at the cafe. I walked out with just a cup of tea and felt my phone vibrate inside my bag. I checked the text from 

Taehyung and he replied:

**Taehyung: You didn't want them?**

I walked to a nearby bench and responded with:

**Y/N: It's just that my roommate caught me wearing them and I told her I was borrowing them. I knew you wanted me to keep the clothes I was just asking to make sure.**

**Taehyung: Ah, I see. You could just leave it off with telling her the clothes were borrowed. If I ever meet her again, I won't bring back up the subject.**

**Y/N: Ok. Thanks for letting me know.**

**Taehyung: You're welcome.**

I put my phone back in my bag after the last text. After that, I felt a familiar presence around my right. At the corner of my eye was a figure of a man in all black leaning against a tree. I stood up and walked over to the man. Few steps in he looked at me making eye contact. I stopped my steps and spoke in surprise, "Jungkook?" 

Jungkook stopped leaning against the tree and turned his whole body towards me. "Y/N right?" he asked while walking towards me and I nodded. 

"H-How have you been?" I asked him not knowing what else to say. 

"I've been doing fine," he responded while standing in front of me making eye contact, "How have you?" 

"I'm okay. I just have to meet up with someone from college." 

"That's nice. Have you been contacting them a lot?" 

"It's through letters. At that time, I didn't have a phone. But I just got one yesterday." 

"I see," he pulled a yellow card out of his pocket and handed it over to me, "Here. I do accept texts when I have time, but for calls, I rarely do." 

"Thank you," I said to him as I put the card with his number in my bag. 

While doing so, there was a loud sound of glass breaking being heard from across the town. There was a faint, but strong thud after and people started screaming and running to a near hideout. Jungkook and I got startled by the noise and quickly looked to see the chaos. Jungkook's mouth gaped then looked back at me, "We have to go," he warned as he grabbed my wrist and ran far from the scene. 

I tried to keep up at the same speed as him since my wrist was being pulled on really tight and he was so fast. I looked from around my left to right and there was smoke coming out of the alleyways. People were running away from it and screamed for help. After the run, Jungkook found a clean alleyway to hide. We went to the spot catching our breaths. "What's going on?" I asked, frightened. 

"They came back," Jungkook said to me. 

He peaked to see what was happening. There was still smoke and people were trying to go inside their homes. However, there were people that weren't lucky. There were men, who looked like soldiers but modernized a bit, in all black with their fedora's hiding their faces capturing the people still outside and drew on a gigantic " **X** " on buildings and walls with pitch black ink. "Who are they?" I asked worried. 

"They're a group of troops who are our enemy in this town," Jungkook explained, "They kidnap people and paint huge marks on their homes to investigate. I'll tell you more about them once we're finally safe." 

I tried to hold back my swelled up tears and was breathing heavily. I looked down so that Jungkook won't see. "We'll be okay," he told me while he put his hand on my shoulder, "Do you know a place where we can take cover?" 

I looked up at him and scanned the areas to go to Lisa's place. "I know where to go," I said to Jungkook after looking around for escape.

I held his hand and started to carefully run around the buildings. Lisa's place was near the area where we hid, but hard to get through due to the many soldiers. Eventually we made it just in time. There were a couple of soldiers around Lisa's house. I looked at the window at the side of the house. I went to the window, still holding Jungkook's hand, and knocked on it. Lisa was there at her desk and didn't notice. I knocked on the window again but this time a little more force for Lisa to hear. Eventually, she looked at her window and ran towards it to open it for me and Jungkook. 

As she opened the window, I quickly went through the opening and she helped me come in. Jungkook followed. "Glad you came here safely," Lisa said to me. 

"Took a while to know how to get here," I said to her. 

Lisa smiled. But then it faded into a shocked look when she looked over my shoulder and saw Jungkook. I turned around to him and he had a shocked expression too. The two were just looking at each other. Frozen. With the looks on their faces like they found a long lost friend. 


	8. Painted it Black part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Black Painters. A group of troops wanting to take over every town and city all because of a betrayal of a boy.

Jungkook and Lisa still kept looking at each other with a surprised expression. I was confused. I went over to Lisa. "You two know each other?" I asked her.

She looked at me. "He was from high school," she answered me, "Do you know him?"

"Yes! That's the reason I brought him in here!," I pointed my hand at Jungkook, "I'm not just gonna leave him behind!"

The room went silent for about two seconds. "But, um," I stuttered while slowly turning towards Jungkook, "I only met you yesterday Jungkook. I never exactly heard any of your background from you before."

Jungkook nodded then looked at Lisa. "We got some keeping up to do," he said to her.

Lisa did a small nod in reply. "But before that," she started, "I believe that we have to talk to Y/N about the massacre happening at this moment first."

She gestured her hand to follow her to the basement area. Jungkook and I listened to her directions and went downstairs. She then followed. The first thing I saw when I entered the basement was a huge screen almost covering up the wall. I looked to my left and saw a bunch of random tools and possibly weapons. The side on my right was a desk with papers scattered on top.

Lisa walked right past us to turn on the screen. The screen showed files of what I assume were documents she typed of some sort of life changing events. Lisa grabbed a stylus and tapped it on one of the files on the screen. "What's that?" I asked suddenly.

Lisa looked back at me. "A documentary entry," she explained, "My boss assigned a topic to his clients to write about extreme events that happened in the town. I was one of them and I decided to write about an enemy group of our town called 'The Black Painters'."

She tapped the stylus on the first page showing the introduction to the topic. "The Black Painters were a group formed back in the 1950's," Lisa started explaining, "The founder of the group was a man named Chun Ji Sun. He was a well known newspaper writer back then. The story all began when he was young. By young I mean in elementary school. He had a group of friends that were two grades higher than him at the time. Based off of many versions of the story, it was either the friends left him behind and never came back, or his friends told rumors about him to other students. There were many possibilities of what could've happened, but we all know it has something to do with his friends betraying him. So once he found out that he can't find his friends, he started asking the people who know them. They all said they didn't know and that was the time he got furious. So he forced them to tell the truth and threatened that he could easily hurt them. Couple years passed by and the same cycle always happens for him. When he turned 19, that's when he decided to form 'The Black Painters'. He had his troops target towns to see who looks like a threat or even have them manipulated into their troops. They would either take the person with them, or end up executing them. The commanders of the troops would choose one of their soldiers to be the next commander once they're about to retire. The Black Painters would come to any town when they're ready for action to take over."

Lisa finished her last page and looked at me and Jungkook. "Of course the Black Painters are still a thing today and won't stop invading towns until they're at their limit," she began, "but I made a list of a couple of things that could possibly bring an end to them."

She turned back to the screen and tapped her stylus on a loose document. "I jotted down a couple," she said, "but the last one I wrote caught my attention the most."

When Lisa scrolled all the way to the bottom, the last line showed:

_Advance steampunk work into self defense use_

I looked at Lisa. "You're a steampunk?" I asked her.

"Well ironically, I'm the only one in my steampunk group that's not necessarily a steampunk," she said, "I help out with the ideas and work mostly and I'm still getting used to repairing and building small mechanics. I was the least trained you can say, but I do help test the projects my teammates worked on."

"What ideas have you made up so far?" Jungkook asked.

"I've got one idea down," Lisa said while skimming through the sheets of paper she has, "I've just made a sketch for an armor set, but still need to tweak some parts up a bit."

"How long will the Black Painters stay in our town?" I asked.

Lisa looked back at me and answered, "They would upload an announcement to every device in the town. And so far with their stay with the rest of the towns, they would usually stay for 3 to 6 days."

All the sudden, the screen started flashing red and popped up a video clip. It showed a man in all black clothing and the area from where he was at was all pitch black, so it was hard to see his face. "Greetings to you all," the man said through the screen, "I'm Commander Dae Woo. As you may know, my troops have taken over your town to search for any possible threats to our kind. But not just that, we would also take several of your people to become one of us. If they refuse to come with us, then we might have to execute them. Since your town here seems to be the biggest one to conquer, my troops would stick around for at least five months. Of course there would be some days where we would leave you alone. That's it for my announcement-"

The video glitched and elapsed back to the man. His last words in the video were, "I know you are out there Jungkook. Within the five months, you should surrender yourself to me when you're ready to join us again."

The video closed off of the screen and I looked towards Jungkook in shock. "S-So you're-" I stuttered.

"The thing is, I was never a part of the Black Painters," Jungkook explained, "At age fifteen, my uncle, Dae Woo, took me away from my parent's house to train to become one of their soldiers. I did do training, but never accepted to become a soldier. One night, I escaped from the building I stayed in, back to my parent's house. I grew up learning about self defense and building mechanisms and armor. On the first day of freshman year of high school, I met Lisa and told her about my experiences as a steampunk."

"He also told me about him being taken away from his parents to join the Black Painters and said not to tell anyone." Lisa added.  
I stared blankly. "So the guy that was in the video was your uncle?" I asked Jungkook.

He nodded. "And he said that his troops are staying for at least five months. What the actual heck are we supposed to do now that we can't go outside?" I yelped.

"Remember, Dae Woo said that they're going to take breaks on some days," Lisa said, "I think they will upload the schedule to the devices."

"Should we check if the soldiers are still outside?" Jungkook asked.

Lisa nodded and guided us back upstairs. All of us checked the door window and there were barely any soldiers there. "They're gone," I said.

A ding noise sounded off from Lisa's phone followed by mine. Lisa checked the text that was sent and it was the schedule for the breaks. "The first break they're   
going to have is starting the Sunday of next week to Tuesday." she said.

"That's a day from now," Jungkook said, "There's a very little amount of soldiers guarding our area, so are we free to go?"

"I have a feeling they're going to be back soon and guard our area again. They probably might be staying in our area for the rest of the day. So I guess you two should stay here overnight."

Jungkook and I nodded. "I'll just start getting comfortable upstairs." Jungkook said as he started walking upstairs to the guest room.

"I'll text Irene that I'll be staying." I said to Lisa as I pulled out my phone.

"Irene?" Lisa asked confused, "The girl you went to college with?"

"Yeah! She and I are now roommates. Don't you remember?"

"Oh, now I do. I gotta get the materials for your stay here. Make yourself comfortable."

"Sure." Lisa went to the kitchen to gather the materials and I started texting Irene.

**Y/N: Turns out I'm gonna have to stay here overnight. Probably the next day too.**

Irene sent:

**Irene: Got it. My group of friends found me and are protected in our house. Stay safe.**

**Y/N: Copy.**

I started worrying about the rest of the boys, so I texted Taehyung:

**Y/N: Are you safe out there?**

He replied with:

**Taehyung: There's none near my area. My house is pretty far from the town itself.**

**Y/N: Thank god. I was worried. But you still can't go out right?**

**Taehyung: Yeah. I hope you're safe wherever you are.**

**Y/N: I am.**

The conversation ended. It's good to have Taehyung safe, but I was still worrying about the rest of the boys.


	9. "Yes Madam"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's about time since you've arrived, Jimin," the woman said, "There's a couple of projects that are still in a work in progress so get to it."
> 
> "Yes Madam!" Jimin said to her and started going to the main work room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT: I actually started writing the au back in June 2019 and NCT consisted of 21 members in all at that time. NCT in 2020 now has 23 members. This is just to let you know that I'm not excluding members from the group. There will only be a certain amount of members mentioned throughout the au just to fit the storyline I'm going for which is also why I only listed the members in NCT 127 in the character tags. Thank you and hope you enjoy reading ✨

It was finally the Sunday break. The moment I woke up from the floor in Lisa's room, I quietly walked downstairs to see if there were still any soldiers around. I looked outside the door window and saw not a single soldier around. There was some damage to the buildings and houses however. I sighed in relief and went to the bathroom to change back into the clothes I wore on Friday. I had to borrow Lisa's pajamas for sleep. When I walked out of the bathroom, I got startled by the presence of Jungkook and Lisa at the dining table. Both of them looked at me.

"Good morning," Jungkook greeted.

I bowed my head down a bit while I was going to the kitchen. "There's already food here," Lisa said across the table.

"Oh, okay," I went over to the table and sat on the empty seat.

I ate a piece of bread from the plate on the middle of the table. "So what are going to be your plans before the troops come back?" I asked Lisa before taking a bite.

"Well I gotta sketch out some more blueprints and write down how the other plans for the entire town is going to work," she explained.

"What are the other plans?"

"I thought of trying to evacuate some people from their homes to somewhere else safe, so that the soldiers won't bother about guarding the houses and end up taking them down."

"How is a certain area going to keep the people safe?" Jungkook asked Lisa.

"We could have the people stay in an area where there are no soldiers occupying there. That way it could give us some time to figure out how to bring an end to the black painters."

Jungkook and I nodded to her statement. "I got one last question," I said, "why did the Black Painters actually start in the first place?"

There was a moment of silence around the table. Eventually, Lisa spoke, "There wasn't really an exact reason,"

"Then how did you get the info about how it started?"

"I only used books and websites even though they barely talk about how it really began. So all I did is piece every single part together until it's actually complete."

Lisa's phone started vibrating on the table. It was a phone call. Lisa picked her phone up and looked at the screen. "It's Jennie," she said, "Excuse me for a bit."

"Don't worry, we're just going to get ready to leave," Jungkook said.

"Okay. Y/N, if you have any questions or ideas, you can text me," Lisa said to me before she took her call.

I nodded and headed upstairs to get my bag. Once Jungkook and I were ready, we walked out the door of Lisa's house after Lisa and I waved goodbye. When Jungkook and I were walking the streets of the town, there was a decent amount of people around. It's either some are still in their homes or some ended up being taken away. "Where will you be going?" I asked Jungkook.

"Back to the factory," he replied.

"Okay, I think I'll be going straight home." We stopped in the middle of the street to say goodbye.

Jungkook started going back to the factory and I watched him walk for a bit. All the sudden, I heard a voice of a man behind me say, "I assume that you got to know him more,"

I flinched then turned around to the man. I realized that it was Jimin. He was wearing a blouse with dress pants and buckled shoes. I walked towards him and said in relief, "You're okay!"

He chuckled. "Of course I am," he said, "are you?"

"B-but last Friday, when the Black Painters arrived, weren't you aware about that?"

"I knew that they were going to arrive once I heard the screams. But I was just staying in the factory the entire day that time."

I exhaled. "You must be lucky to stay inside the factory the entire time since there probably wasn't any soldiers guarding in front of it. Jungkook and I had to sneak our way to Lisa's house and there were a couple soldiers guarding our area. But we came out okay."

"I see," Jimin said, "Do you want to walk with me to my workplace?"

"Your workplace?" I was confused.

"It's just my own place where I would do personal steampunk work."

"Oh, sure thing!"

We started walking to his workplace. While walking I asked Jimin, "So how did you become a steampunk?"

"Ah, it all started when I was around 18," he explained, "but before I started, I didn't completely know how to do clockwork or other activities. All I did was just teach myself on how to do steampunk work just by looking at other steampunks working on their own. I started getting better at it until I met Namjoon. He found me at my workplace when I was working on requests and asked if I wanted to join his crew. I accepted, and yes I still work at my workplace when I don't have a busy schedule in the HQ."

"I see. But now since the Black Painters just arrived, what do you think are going to be your plans for stopping them?"

"Stopping them?"

"Yeah, I just met up with my friend Lisa and she shared her plans."

"What did she have?"

"One of them was advancing steampunk work into self defense."

"Oh, I was working on a vehicle at my workplace. That was the reason why I was going there. Maybe I tweak some things in it." 

I nodded at his statement. We made it to his workplace and it didn't really look that small. "Oh! I forgot to mention," Jimin started, "that I have a manager at my workplace."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"She's more advanced in steampunk than me, however she just helps me with some work during my projects. I was working with her most of the time before I met Namjoon. So when I'm away, she's the one doing most of the work."

"Oh, that makes more sense."

Jimin opened the door to his workplace. We both entered and it was a bit quiet. There was only a faint sound of jazz music. I looked to my left and saw a wooden table with a lot of papers on top of it, so I assumed it was Jimin's. "Make yourself comfortable," he said as he walked to his table.

All the sudden, a voice from a woman called out, "Hey!"

Jimin and I got startled and looked to where the voice came from. There was another table to the right of the entrance. There sat a woman with long wavy black hair and was wearing a brown trench coat dress. Her feet rested on the table and she was reading a book. She must be Jimin's manager. "It's about time since you've arrived, Jimin," the woman said, "There's a couple of projects that are still in a work in progress so get to it."

"Yes Madam!" Jimin said to her and started going to the main work room.

The woman continued to read her book and I was staring at her blankly for a bit. I noticed that she had a name stand on her table which read:

_Ahn Hye Jin_

The woman noticed me staring at her name stand and said, "Are you a friend of Jimin visiting?"

I immediately looked up at her and I didn't know what to say. "Um, y-yes!' I responded, "You're his manager right? Ahn Hyejin?"

"Yes I am Jimin's manager. Ahn Hyejin is my real name but everyone calls me Hwasa."

"Oh, I see. So what do you do as a steampunk?"

"Well, I'm the youngest in my steampunk group but had the most experience. I work here when there's a day off at my group's steampunk place."

"Oh, I'm still a beginner at steampunk, but I'm learning quickly."

Hwasa nodded her head. "How did you first get into it?"

"I found out through some old books in a library. I thought that it was so interesting, that I even want to learn steampunk myself."

"I see," she then changed the topic, "Apparently, the Black Painters are trying to take over this town and our resources for our projects are running out. We tried to go look through most of the stores to see if there's anything we can use, but there's none. Our only possible stop is an elite steampunk group's factory. They're mostly considered cyberpunks known for their complicated computer technology works."

"Where's that?"

"It's out of this town and is pretty far. The factory is called the Neo Culture Tower. The group's name is NCT. Lee Taeyong is the manager along with two others. NCT consists of 21 members but is split up into sub units. Currently, U is inactive at the moment, but 127 and Dream are still working. There's another unit called WayV, but the unit is in a near separate building from the factory. They are on a break at the moment too but not for long."

"So to get the resources from the group, do we just go to the factory or contact them through a device?"

"The factory doesn't expect visitors a lot. So our usual option is contacting through a device."

All the sudden, we heard a scream followed by a loud crash from the main work room. Hwasa and I immediately looked at the work room and dashed to see what happened. It was Jimin, being caught underneath a large piece of metal.


	10. The Neo Culture Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> " _Welcome to the Neo Culture Tower. What can I do for you?_ "

Hwasa and I rushed to Jimin and pushed the metal off his body. I helped Jimin get up. "What happened here?" Hwasa asked in a frightened and raised voice.

"I-I don't know!" Jimin responded trying to catch his breath, "I was working on the wheel of the carriage and then one of the metal pieces fell off."

"Was it secured?" I asked Jimin.

"I was a hundred percent sure it was!" he responded to me.

"Agh, I'll try to fix this," Hwasa said, "Jimin, take a break for a bit."

Jimin nodded and we went to his table. He was skimming through the other work in progress projects. I then asked, "Didn't you use the black magic?" which caused Jimin to quickly stand up from his chair to hush me.

"Keep it down!" he whispered to me, "You don't want her to hear!"

I forgot that I wasn't supposed to talk about black magic to anyone. "Sorry, but wouldn't the black magic easily keep the metal in place?" I asked Jimin.

"The thing is, we're not supposed to use black magic for projects outside of the HQ," he explained, "There could be chances where something would go wrong and none of the members are around."

I nodded in understanding. Hwasa walked out of the work room and spoke, "Well, I tried to put the metal back in its place, but it kept on falling. There's no other tools to keep in place."

I turned around to Hwasa and asked, "So do we contact NCT then?"

"I think it's the time," Hwasa turned to Jimin, "Can you try to call the Neo Culture Tower please?"

"Sure thing," he responded and dialed the number to the factory.

We waited for a bit before they could pick up, but they didn't. "Well, there's always a second option," Hwasa said.

"We're going to have to go to the factory ourselves?" I asked, "But how?"

"We'll have enough time," Jimin stood up from his chair, "the troops don't come back until this Wednesday."

"How long is the drive to the factory?" I asked.

"About 2 hours," Hwasa responded, "All we need is just a pack of heavy duty metal and more tools if you can. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to work on the other projects. You gonna help me out Jimin?"

"Yes ma'am," before he walked with Hwasa to the work room, he quickly went up to me and gave me his contact.

"Thanks, but how am I supposed to go to the factory alone?" I asked Jimin.

"You're not going alone," he said to me, "I'll call Hoseok and Yoongi to drive to the location."

He did. I thanked him again and he went back to the main work room. I walked out of the workplace and waited for Hoseok and Yoongi. After a while, I saw an old school but modern car pull up. Two people walked out and it was the two boys. Hoseok was in a brown leather jacket and Yoongi was in a black trench coat. "So Jimin called us to drive you somewhere right?" Hoseok asked.

"Yeah!" I said, "Do you two know about the Neo Culture Tower or just NCT in general?"

"Jungkook is close friends with one of the members," Yoongi said.

"I see, well I got the contact and location for the factory," I said.

"That's great! How long is the ride?" Hoseok asked.

"It's about two hours." I responded.

"That's not too long," Yoongi said, "Now what are you waiting for, let's go to the factory already."

Hoseok and Yoongi went to the front seats while I went to the back. Yoongi started the car and then drove out of the area.

Throughout most of the drive, I was looking through the window. Yoongi and Hoseok stayed quiet throughout. I then got a text from Irene that says:

**Irene: Where are you at?**

I panicked a bit since I didn't know how to respond. I just said:

**Y/N: I'm in a car ride with Hoseok and Yoongi to another steampunk factory, but don't worry, I'll be fine. We're only going to pick up a couple materials.**

**Irene: Oh I see, you'll be back soon right?**

**Y/N: I promise**

Then the conversation just ended there. I looked up at the two boys and asked them, "So how did you two become steampunks?"

Hoseok turned his head to me slightly and responded, "I started learning steampunk from my mom at around age 8. I would just watch her do her work and learn from it. But when I was 18, my mom was supposed to go out of town to help out another steampunk group, but after a while, I realized that she never came back. I still don't know how or why she ended up disappearing. A month later, a man asked me if I want to join his steampunk group. It was Namjoon. I told him that I'll think about it first so he gave me a contact card to the factory. While I was walking back to my place, I saw two people about to jump a boy."

"The boy was me," Yoongi started his story, "The reason why the two people were about to jump me was that they were classmates back in middle school and high school, when I started learning steampunk. They would talk trash about me and my family. I learned steampunk by myself and my parents didn't care about it, but when they saw my works, they took them away from me and told me to focus on school. Today, my parents and I are stable now."

"So I approached the two boys," Hoseok continued his story, "and I told them off. They refused at first but I told them off again with a more stern tone. I went over to Yoongi and asked if he was a steampunk."

"I replied to him with a yes and that I was in a steampunk group already. We eventually got to know each other and he decided to join the group I was in."

"Oh, I forgot to even ask you guys what was your steampunk group called," I said, "what's its name?"

Hoseok responded, "So you do know our factory is called Steampunk HQ. Well our group name is called 'Bangtan Steampunk'. It's supposed to mean 'bulletproof steampunk' as said by Namjoon."

"Were there any other groups that owned and managed the HQ before you guys?"

"It was mostly Namjoon's great great grandfather, Nicholas, that owned and managed the place. When Nicholas got older, he passed it down to his sons. Namjoon became the first son to manage the HQ with a group of people."

"How does the HQ make it so different from the rest of the factories?"

"Most of the factories are usually shown in most parts of the towns like BlackPink's and Mamamoo's factory. HQ was founded in the forest and that's why there's not a lot of people that know about it or the actual location. The people would just know mostly about the founder which was Nicholas."

A couple minutes later, we arrived at the Neo Culture Tower. I got out of the car and looked at the factory. I was a bit surprised to see how it looked. Unlike the Steampunk HQ, it was an actual tower. The factory looked cleaned up and made out of a stronger material. It had a bit of a neon green color and was taller and wider than the HQ. It had a futuristic look to it.

Hoseok and Yoongi got out of the car and went towards the factory. I immediately broke my gaze at the factory and went to Hoseok and Yoongi. When we walked up to the entrance, a visor appeared and it scanned our faces. After that, a female computer voice said, " _Please wait for your identity to be confirmed._ "

We waited for a couple of seconds until the door opened. We went inside to a huge room with a spacious hallway on each side. Then we saw a receptionist counter in the corner with a computer that was facing us. I walked up to the counter and the computer screen turned on. The computer said, " _Welcome to the Neo Culture Tower. What can I do for you?_ "

The voice was the same as the one we heard outside. "We are looking for the main work room of the factory," Hoseok told the computer.

" _Searching,_ " we waited for a bit until the computer showed the work room on the screen, " _The main work room is on floor 5. The cyberpunks that are currently there are Lee Taeyong, Mark Lee, and Jung Jaehyun._ "

The computer showed the profiles of the members that were in the work room. The first profile said:

**Lee Taeyong, U, 127:  
July 1, 1995  
Leader, Lead Manager **

The second one said:

**Mark Lee, U, 127, former Dream:  
August 2, 1999  
Main Manager, Vehicle Operator, Architect**

The last one said:

**Jung Jaehyun, U, 127:**  
**February 14, 1997  
Computer Operator**

"Let's head up!" Yoongi told us as he started going to the elevator next to the counter.

Hoseok and I followed Yoongi. We walked into the elevator and Yoongi pressed the 5th floor button. Once the elevator took us to the 5th floor, the doors opened. The entrance to the main work room was right in front of us. We heard some mechanical noises through the door of the work room. We walked up to the door and Hoseok knocked on the door. The doors open to a huge spacious room.

The ceiling was almost shaped like a dome and the walls were tall and wide. The walls were made out of metal and had some neon green accents. The room was filled with vehicles and other complicated looking architectures. The mechanic noises continued in the room at our left. So we went to the other room. When we walked into the the second part of the main work room, Hoseok spoke out, "Excuse us?"

When we were in the second part of the work room, there were three boys working on some sort of large vehicle. They looked up at us. One of them was standing with a tablet. He had pale pink hair with brown tips and was wearing a leather jacket. One of them was on a ladder working on one of the parts of the vehicle. He had blonde hair and wore an armour-like outfit. The third boy who was also working on the vehicle had black hair with blue stripes with a black bandana and a black button up with a toolbelt.

The boy with blonde hair went down from the ladder and walked up to Hoseok with a slight smile. "It's been a while!" he said.

Hoseok and the boy shook hands while the other two went up to me and Yoongi. "Who's the girl?" the boy with the leather jacket asked.

"I-I'm Y/N," I said to him.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Jaehyun." we shook hands, "What brings you guys here?"

"Yoongi, Hoseok, and I were requested to pick up some materials from you guys."

"Did you run out?" the boy with the bandana asked.

"Our group and a member of ours were running low," Yoongi explained, "due to the Black Painters taking over most of the markets and the equipment."

"They went after your town next?!" the boy with blonde hair exclaimed.

"They're on break for now. They don't come back till Wednesday."

"How long are they staying in all?"

"Five months due to how big the town is."

"I see," the boy with blonde hair went up to me, "We'll get the materials you need. I'm Mark by the way. The guy with the bandana is our group leader, Taeyong."

I nodded. "We just need a pack of heavy metal duty metal and several tools."

"Right this way," Taeyong guided us to the material room.

After walking through the hallways of the factory, we made it to the material room. Taeyong opened the door which led to a small but spacious room full of materials. Hoseok and Yoongi went in to get the materials. Meanwhile, Mark and I started a conversation. "So how is your town dealing with the Black Painters now?" he asked me.

"Some of the buildings were damaged," I responded, "there were a couple of injured and missing people, but my friend who's in a steampunk group came up with plans to get rid of the Black Painters."

"What are the plans?"

"One of the main focuses is advancing steampunk work into self defense."

"Oh, so how are they going to do that?"

"My friend made blueprints on vehicles and armor. Our town has the most steampunk factories and groups. Maybe your team could help with taking down the Black Painters. You're considered the elite steampunk group."

"Our work revolves around cyberpunk mostly. We formed NCT around three years ago. We started off with mostly steampunk work, but as more teammates joined, we started focusing on cyberpunk work. It was around when we started forming 127 and part of Dream. U was starting to be a bit inactive due to most of the members, like me, Jaehyun, and Taeyong, joining 127. So that's why cyberpunk became our main focus for this group."

"So all the steampunk materials are all in that one room?"

"You could say that."

Hoseok and Yoongi walked out with the materials. "Kay, we got what we needed," Yoongi said.

"Thanks for stopping by," Taeyong said.

As Hoseok, Yoongi, and I were walking out, Jaehyun suddenly asked, "Do any of you know Jungkook's current condition?"

He had a bit of a worried tone. I was shocked. So that was the guy Yoongi was talking about before we got here. I turned to Jaehyun. "He's doing fine," I said, "but due to the Black Painters taking over our town, their commander is his uncle that is trying to get him to rejoin his troops."

"So he was a Black Painter?" Jaehyun went up to me in a very worried tone.

"He told me that he never was. He escaped just as he was about to join the troops."

Jaehyun sighed and was relieved. "It's just that I haven't seen him in a long time."

"I'm sure he'll be fine."

-

We walked out of the factory back into the car. I was still a bit spaced out knowing that Jaehyun was close friends with Jungkook. I could imagine how worried he was when Jungkook was being hunted down by the Black Painters. Our drive back to the town was me thinking about the Black Painter's next move.


End file.
